Reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is essential to eliminating the massive debt in this country.
That was part of the message Sen. Richard Burr delivered as he spoke to the Rotary Club of Statesville during its Thursday meeting at the Statesville Country Club.
Burr said the U.S. spent about $3.7 trillion and collected $2.2 trillion in the past year. Eliminating discretionary spending and the military, he said, would still leave a deficit of $200 billion. “What’s left?” he asked, rhetorically. “Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”
Burr, a Republican in his second term on Capitol Hill, said it will take a bi-partisan effort to reform those programs in order to solve some of the debt problems facing this country. The three programs account for 57 percent of the federal budget.
“We have to be bold enough to reform Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” he said. “If we do it right, there won’t be anybody in America that won’t feel the effects.”
Burr said explaining the need to reform those programs to the American public is something politicians are going to have to do. He said addressing the growing debt is the only way to encourage business expansion and the creation of jobs in the long term.
“We can’t buy our way out of where we are,” he said.
Burr said another looming problem is the rising cost of fuel. “Every cent gas goes up takes $1.7 billion out of our economy,” he said.
Iredell County Commissioner Renee Griffith asked Burr if Congress is looking at ways to end the dependency on Mid East oil supplies. Because of the unrest in several Middle Eastern countries, she said, oil supplies to the U.S. could be in trouble.
He said the way to end that dependency is to look at the expansion of nuclear energy and natural gas and dropping the moratorium on off-shore drilling close to the U.S. “We are going to have to lift the moratorium on deep and shallow water drilling in the gulf,” he said.
Burr predicted gas prices will be at $4 per gallon within three months and Congress is going to have to look at ways to meet the energy needs without reliance on the Mid East. “We need a bi-partisan approach to address energy needs,” he said. “It’s scary.”
Rotary Club member Bill Brater asked Burr about a hot-button issue with many Americans — foreign aid.
“This is an easy target to shoot at,” he said.
But, he said, foreign aid is not a wasted program. Burr said he believed the $7 billion invested in the Middle East is worth the expense. He said the money spent in those countries helps ensure some degree of stability. “Given the support we’re getting, it (the money) doesn’t make a difference but it makes a big difference in security.”
In closing, Burr told the group that more government is not going to solve the financial crisis in this country. “It is something the American people will have to solve,” he said.
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